Drainage

Drain clearing and gully emptying

Drain clearing is undertaken to ensure that surface water is removed from the carriageway as quickly as possible and not allowed to pond on the road. In addition, it is important that water is not allowed to stand on the carriageway and cause a road safety hazard. In the winter, standing water has the potential to freeze, causing further problems. Water seeping into the road surface also results in a "freeze-thaw" cycle, creating potholes.

Drain clearing is programmed and all drains will be cleared a minimum of once per year. While we are clearing the drains, we are carrying out CCTV survey of these so we can understand where improvements to the system need to be made. We have just completed CCTV surveys of all the drains District 1 and 2 and are working our way around the Island with this work.

In addition to the programmed work, our teams react to reports of blocked drains or gullies. We also react to weather warnings by concentrating cleansing activities on areas we know are prone to flooding problems.